The concept of combining computers and networks to remotely monitor and control devices has been around for some time. The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of devices, including, but not limited to, vehicles and home appliances, that contain electronics, software, sensors, and actuators, allowing these things to connect, interact, and exchange data. The IoT involves extending Internet connectivity beyond devices such as smartphones and computers, to a variety of traditionally non-Internet-enabled physical devices and everyday objects, allowing them to be remotely controlled and/or monitored.
The recent interest in IoT by a diverse audience, including consumers, is driven by several factors. The widespread adoption and decreased cost of Internet Protocol (IP) based networking, the increase in computing power, lower price points, and lower power consumption of devices, cutting-edge manufacturing advances, allowing miniaturization of devices that are highly capable, advances in data analytics, and advances in cloud computing have contributed to IoT's popularity and focus. With only minimal or no human interaction, IoT devices are generally known to generate, exchange, and consume data and they may connect to remote servers or other cloud-based devices for data collection, management, and analysis.
IoT is available to divergent industry sectors, from traffic and weather control, autonomous vehicles, smart homes, consumer electronics, wearables, security, farming, fitness, manufacturing standardization and automation, mining, seismic monitoring, smart metering, flight navigation, shipment tracking, and so on.
The same numbers are used throughout the disclosure and the figures to reference like components and features. Numbers in the 100 series refer to features originally found in FIG. 1, numbers in the 200 series refer to features originally found in FIG. 2, and so on.